Obama Campaign Distorts Energy Record, Deceives American Public

WASHINGTON D.C. — The Obama campaign, the Democratic National Committee and a pro-Obama Super PAC are frantically deploying television propaganda to distract the American public from the president’s energy record. In an ongoing multi-million dollar educational advertisement sponsored by the American Energy Alliance, the president’s true record is laid bare. Yet in the last week, the partisan Democratic triumvirate launched an apparently coordinated response to AEA’s ad, “Nine Dollar Gas,” now airing in eight states.

“The desperate response of Team Obama reveals the degree to which the president feels personally responsible for higher gas prices and is worried that the American people will listen to the truth instead of his propaganda. Rather than address the facts in the AEA ad, the Obama campaign, the DNC and his Bill Maher-funded Super PAC, throw up smokescreens and false allegations to hide from the truth,” noted AEA President Thomas Pyle.

“With rising gas prices, the president understandably wants to run from his record. His efforts to distract the public by floating specious claims and making unsubstantiated allegations about the American Energy Alliance are schizophrenic and shameful. Airing dubious response ads won’t lower gas prices, and it most certainly won’t absolve the president or his administration for a three-year energy embargo on federal lands.”

The Obama campaign claims that AEA’s ad is “false,” and without giving evidence of a single false claim, proceeds to make some whoppers of their own. Consider the following:

Obama False Claim #1: “[T]his president has expanded oil and gas drilling.”

AEA Truth: According to data released last month by the Energy Information Administration, oil production on federal lands was down 14 percent in FY2011. Offshore oil production alone declined by 285,000 barrels a day over the past fiscal year, and natural gas production on federal and Indian lands has fallen by 781 billion cubic feet since FY2009.

Those decreases are enough to deny a year’s worth of oil supply to both Nevada and New Mexico, and enough to shut off all natural gas to the states of Ohio or Michigan.

Obama False Claim #2: “[President Obama] is taking steps to … save consumers at the pump by making sure we are no longer tied to the volatile prices in the global oil market.”

AEA Truth: The only steps the president has taken so far to directly address the rising price of gasoline was to ask the Saudi royal family to boost oil production, to call for increased production in Sudan, and to dispatch Attorney General Eric Holder to form another task force targeting oil markets.

Meanwhile, the president has cancelled oil development off the Atlantic coast, cancelled offshore development in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, cancelled lease sales in the Alaskan seas, and cancelled oil shale development in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. All told, the president’s policies have embargoed more than 1 trillion barrels of technically recoverable oil reserves.

Obama False Claim #3: “[D]omestic oil production is at its highest level in eight years.”

AEA Truth: According to a Congressional Research Service report released last month, 96 percent of the increases in domestic oil production are occurring on private and state lands. Moreover, production increases that have occurred over the last three years are due to Bush-era policies, a fact even The New York Times cautiously admits.

Obama False Claim #4:  “President Obama’s historic investments have also helped increase clean energy production — net electricity from wind and solar have more than doubled since 2008.”

AEA Truth:  First, it is telling that the president takes credit for “his investments” in solar and wind energy. Last time we checked, he’s been “investing” the money of the American people, and doing a pretty poor job at it. Between Solyndra, Beacon Power, Blythe Solar, and Solar Trust of America, the Obama administration owns these failures, regardless of how politically unpalatable they are. Billions of taxpayer dollars have been thrown into renewable energy sinkholes by this administration with no prospect of a return on the “investment.”

As for the ‘doubling’ of wind and solar, it’s also telling what the Obama campaign does not disclose. Last year, wind and solar energy generated less than 3 percent of our net electricity.  But on a total consumption basis, these sources only suppled 1.3 percent of our energy needs. Moreover, according to an EIA report released last year, taxpayer-funded renewable energy subsidies increased by 186 percent over three years to $14.7 billion. Simply put, the president’s favorite renewables may be producing more electricity, but at nearly three times as much cost to taxpayers.

Obama False Claim #5: “Why is Big Oil attacking [President Obama]? Because he’s fighting to end their tax breaks . . . So when you see [AEA]’s ad, remember who paid for it and what they want.”

AEA Truth: The Washington Post Fact Checker has now called response ads aired on behalf of President Obama “misleading,” and “stretches of the truth.” To read why Team Obama has received “Three Pinocchios” for false ads twice in the last four days, click hereand here.

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